Overview

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Starting with the installation of 11 bicycle (and pedestrian) NMF counters in a number of counties predominantly in west, central Scotland, from June 2017 and through to Aug 2020, when the 63rd counter was installed in Fort William in the Highlands, and a further three in Edinburgh in Jun and Jul 2021. The snapshots now also include data from more dense networks of council-managed counters and some points along the John Muir Way.

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Cyclists – Total Count by Month & Year, All Bicycle Counters

Pedestrians – Total Count by Month & Year, NMF Counters

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Counter Data Summaries

NMF Counters

Total count per year
traffic mode 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 total
National Monitoring Framework (CS) bicycle 121,410 334,577 1,079,064 2,061,402 1,488,903 5,085,356
National Monitoring Framework (CS) pedestrian 321,198 910,552 3,711,360 7,784,947 8,285,767 21,013,824
Average daily count across counters
traffic mode 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
National Monitoring Framework (CS) bicycle 48 41 60 96 98
National Monitoring Framework (CS) pedestrian 221 183 293 506 748
Average daily count, overall
traffic mode 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
National Monitoring Framework (CS) bicycle 26 38 123 235 227
National Monitoring Framework (CS) pedestrian 68 104 424 886 1265
Average hourly count
traffic mode 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
National Monitoring Framework (CS) bicycle 0.5 0.4 0.6 1 1
National Monitoring Framework (CS) pedestrian 2.3 1.9 3 5.3 7.8

 
Focusing on the NMF counters, at end Sep 2021 over 5m bikes and 21m pedestrians had been recorded going past all counters. Average count per day dropped in 2018 for both types of counters before starting to rise again. Looking at counts overall, cycling peaked in May 2020, two months after the first COVID-19 lockdown was imposed, then continued to drop after plateauing over the summer. Despite further restrictions in 2021 cycling dropped overall. Walking, overall, however continued to rise in 2021. But even this started to decrease in April, and by June had dropped below the same month in 2020. However, both cycling and walking started to rise again in Jul 2021, both over the 2020 figures, but then fell again in Aug, rising only slightly in Sep.

The data now also includes council-managed counters. However, the much larger number of counters and denser network in the two largest cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow, skew the data, especially when looking at totals. We therefore compare data across location and time using predominantly average counts.

 

Council Counters & the John Muir Way

Total count per year
traffic mode 2018 2019 2020 2021 total
City of Edinburgh Council bicycle 11,686,881 12,036,787 12,487,914 10,639,651 46,851,233
East Dunbartonshire Council bicycle 46,603 90,008 236,291 105,841 478,743
Glasgow City Council bicycle 3,032,075 3,803,975 2,448,636 2,192,131 11,476,817
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar bicycle
47,529 37,142 39,313 123,984
Stirling Council bicycle
639,243 743,521 817,582 2,200,346
John Muir Way bicycle
33,383 83,799 117,182
Perth and Kinross Council bicycle
132,657 132,657
Average daily count across counters
traffic mode 2018 2019 2020 2021
City of Edinburgh Council bicycle 967 752 601 715
East Dunbartonshire Council bicycle 60 25 65 43
Glasgow City Council bicycle 306 261 156 143
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar bicycle
16 13 22
Stirling Council bicycle
85 88 124
John Muir Way bicycle
48 61
Perth and Kinross Council bicycle
36
Average daily count, overall
traffic mode 2018 2019 2020 2021
City of Edinburgh Council bicycle 1334 1378 1422 1699
East Dunbartonshire Council bicycle 7 10 27 18
Glasgow City Council bicycle 346 454 279 340
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar bicycle
5 4 6
Stirling Council bicycle
73 85 125
John Muir Way bicycle
10 13
Perth and Kinross Council bicycle
77
Average hourly count
traffic mode 2018 2019 2020 2021
City of Edinburgh Council bicycle 40.3 31.3 25.1 29.8
East Dunbartonshire Council bicycle 2.5 1 2.7 1.8
Glasgow City Council bicycle 12.8 10.9 6.5 5.9
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar bicycle
0.4 0.3 0.5
Stirling Council bicycle
3.5 3.7 5.2
John Muir Way bicycle
2 2.6
Perth and Kinross Council bicycle
1.5

Counter Locations

All counters – NMF and council-managed, showing installation dates and count per location. It should be noted that there is some delay between counter installation and the point from which data is recorded. Counters that came online within the last month or two may therefore not have any data reported in charts shown. Occasionally, a counter may go out of action temporarily and sometimes for significant periods of time.

Cycling through the Week

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Cycling – Changes through the Week

Change over Time – Cycling through the Week

Cycling through the Year

Comparing total counts for each data provider and location against averages per hour through the day… this gets more interesting looking at the data month on month, as we can see how cycling changes through the full period for which counters were installed and working. (Note - where the picture is blank no data exists for a provider for that period.)

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Average Monthly Count

Monthly Totals

Variation across Locations

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By Year

By Month

As the Seasons Change

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Monthly Counts per Location

Monthly Totals - As the Seasons Change

 
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Rainfall Patterns (mm) - Scotland

Temperature Patterns (C) - Scotland

Changes in Counts by Year

Peak Counts

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Counts vary from 0 to, occasionally, for cyclists, well over 20K within an hour and almost 70K in a single day. The tables below give a feel for when spikes occurred within each dataset; in East Dunbartonshire the peak hourly count occurs on the day with the peak count. Any or all of day of the week, time of day and month in the year, and recent weather patterns, road type, in addition to a specific event in a location contribute to variation in numbers of especially cyclists in a location.

Peak Counts

Maximum hourly count for any one counter, across data providers
Provider TrafficMode LocalAuthority Location RoadName RoadType Date Weekday Time Count
East Dunbartonshire Council bicycle East Dunbartonshire Kirkintilloch Strathkelvin Walkway 23 Sep 2020 Wed 14:00 24181
City of Edinburgh Council bicycle Edinburgh Edinburgh Harrison Park 03 Jun 2018 Sun 11:00 24150
Glasgow City Council bicycle Glasgow Glasgow CP Victoria Street / Alison Street 27 Sep 2021 Mon 05:00 1990
Stirling Council bicycle Stirling Stirling Albert Place (Westbound) 16 Sep 2021 Thu 13:00 1328
National Monitoring Framework (CS) bicycle North Ayrshire Largs Largs Promenade A-Road 26 Sep 2021 Sun 13:00 1100
Perth and Kinross Council bicycle Perth and Kinross Perth and Kinross Edinburgh Road (Discontinued 202008) 10 Aug 2021 Tue 05:00 687
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar bicycle Na h-Eileanan Siar Port Ness Port Ness 08 Dec 2020 Tue 12:00 415
John Muir Way bicycle North Lanarkshire Dullatur NCR754, Kilsyth Path 15 Aug 2020 Sat 11:00 71
National Monitoring Framework (CS) pedestrian Argyll & Bute Dunoon Victoria Parade Path 01 May 2021 Sat 07:00 22171

 

Maximum daily count for any one counter, across data providers
Provider TrafficMode LocalAuthority Location RoadName RoadType Date Weekday Count
City of Edinburgh Council bicycle Edinburgh Edinburgh London Road 20 Jan 2018 Sat 69515
East Dunbartonshire Council bicycle East Dunbartonshire Kirkintilloch Strathkelvin Walkway 23 Sep 2020 Wed 45979
Stirling Council bicycle Stirling Stirling Albert Place (Westbound) 16 Sep 2021 Thu 7030
Perth and Kinross Council bicycle Perth and Kinross Perth and Kinross Croft-na-Caber 19 Sep 2021 Sun 5203
National Monitoring Framework (CS) bicycle North Ayrshire Largs Largs Promenade A-Road 27 Sep 2021 Mon 4611
Glasgow City Council bicycle Glasgow Glasgow CP West Street / Paisley Road 14 May 2019 Tue 2781
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar bicycle Na h-Eileanan Siar Port Ness Port Ness 08 Dec 2020 Tue 1686
John Muir Way bicycle North Lanarkshire Dullatur NCR754, Kilsyth Path 15 Aug 2020 Sat 460
National Monitoring Framework (CS) pedestrian Shetland Lerwick Cemetery Path Path 01 Sep 2021 Wed 110904

Lerwick – Change through the Seasons

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Lerwick – Change through the Seasons

Monthly Totals - As the Seasons Change

 
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Rainfall Patterns (mm) - Lerwick, Shetland

Temperature Patterns (C) - Lerwick, Shetland

About

About …

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Counter data may be accessed via Cycling Scotland's Active Travel Open Data Portal. The data used in the analysis presented was accessed via the API at the level of detail for both pedestrian and cycle counters operated under Cycling Scotland's National Monitoring Framework. To use the API you must register and request an API key. Alternatively, a dump may be downloaded from the portal.

Historical weather pattern data was obtained from the Met Office.